27-04-2016, 10:51

At 6 a.m. on May 2, the commander of the defense of Berlin, General Weidling, crossed the front line and surrendered. “All day on May 2 in Berlin, the Nazis surrendered in whole units and units ... On this day, 134 thousand Nazi soldiers and officers were taken prisoner in the Berlin area, of which 34 thousand were troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front,” writes I S. Konev finds in this confirmation of his assumption that the number of the Berlin garrison significantly exceeded 200 thousand people.

Konev's statement is absolutely correct, since the number of the Berlin garrison exceeded the number of those taken prisoner by the number of those killed and wounded in battles, as well as the military scattered among the civilian population. The number of the enemy opposing the Soviet troops in Berlin will still increase significantly with the addition of the civilian population participating in the battles.

In the last combat report on the actions of the 1st Ukrainian Front during the Berlin operation, I. S. Konev wrote: “The troops of the front today, May 2, 1945, after nine days of street fighting, completely captured the southwestern and central regions of the city of Berlin (within the dividing line established for the front) and, together with the troops of the First Belorussian Front, captured the city of Berlin.

I. S. Konev highly appreciated the role of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command and the General Staff in the Berlin operation. About the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and the General Staff, Konev wrote the following: “I. V. Stalin carefully listened to the considerations of the front commanders, taking into account the proposals of the General Staff, determined the plan of the Berlin operation, after which he set clear operational tasks for the fronts. Based on these instructions, the commanders developed plans of operations, which were reviewed and approved by the Headquarters.

The Supreme Commander-in-Chief, with his characteristic firmness, led the Berlin operation, closely followed its development, personally coordinated the actions of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts, providing the necessary support. Possessing great knowledge in the field of strategy and military history, he realistically assessed the foreign policy situation, enemy plans and groupings, the state of the economy, the capabilities of equipment and weapons, and the moral and political state of the troops. A characteristic feature of I. V. Stalin's style was taking into account all the features of the situation when planning each operation.

The enormous scope and high pace of the advance of the fronts required great effort and well-coordinated work of the General Staff. Preparing considerations for strategic planning and daily monitoring the implementation of the directives of the Stavka, the General Staff knew the situation on the fronts in every detail, actively helped the commanders, and quickly resolved the entire complex set of issues that ensure the success of operations.

I think I will not be mistaken if I say that in none of the wars ever waged by Russia, there was such a high level of command and control of troops and the national economy as during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

On May 7, Zhukov in Berlin was called by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I. V. Stalin and said: “Today in the city of Reims, the Germans signed an act of unconditional surrender. The main burden of the war, he continued, was borne by the Soviet people, and not by the allies, therefore the surrender must be signed before the High Command of all countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, and not only before the High Command of the Allied Forces.

I did not agree with the fact, - continued JV Stalin, - that the act of surrender was signed not in Berlin, in the center of fascist aggression. We agreed with the Allies to regard the signing of the act in Reims as a preliminary protocol of surrender. Tomorrow, representatives of the German High Command and representatives of the High Command of the Allied Forces will arrive in Berlin.

Stalin further informed Zhukov of his appointment as a representative of the High Command of the Soviet Troops, Commander-in-Chief in the Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany, and Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany.

Early in the morning, A. Ya. Vyshinsky flew to Berlin with all the documentation necessary to formalize the surrender of Germany. On the same day, journalists, correspondents from all the major newspapers and magazines in the world, photojournalists began to arrive in Berlin to capture the moment of the legal registration of the defeat of Nazi Germany. Representatives of the Supreme Command of the Allied Forces arrived.

It should be noted that high-ranking, but not the first persons of the allied forces arrived from the United States and England. They brought representatives of the defeated Germany. The signing of the act of unconditional surrender took place in Karlshorst, in the eastern part of Berlin.

Zhukov said: “We, representatives of the Supreme Command of the Soviet Armed Forces and the Supreme Command of the Allied Forces, opening the meeting, are authorized by the governments of the anti-Hitler coalition to accept the unconditional surrender of Germany from the German military command. Invite representatives of the German high command into the hall.

All those present turned their heads to the door, where now those who boastfully declared to the whole world about their ability to defeat France and England with lightning speed and crush the Soviet Union in one and a half to two months were supposed to appear.

Field Marshal Keitel, Hitler's right hand, entered, followed by Air Colonel General Stumpf and Fleet Admiral von Friedeburg. They were asked to sit down at a separate table, which had been placed at the entrance especially for them in advance. The signing ceremony began. At 0 hours 43 minutes on May 9, 1945, the act of unconditional surrender was signed by all parties. Zhukov invited the German delegation to leave the hall.

May 9 became the most beloved national holiday in the USSR. At 0050 hours, the meeting at which the unconditional surrender of the German armed forces was adopted was closed. After the meeting, there was a festive dinner, during which they remembered friends and comrades-in-arms who died during the war. It was bitter to realize that they did not have a chance to live to see this joyful day. I remembered everything experienced and suffered by our armed forces, our Soviet people. Tears welled up in the eyes of people who were used to looking death in the face without the slightest fear.

And then they toasted to the living, to the Victory. The festive dinner ended in the morning with songs and dances. Out of competition danced the Soviet generals. Zhukov also could not resist and, remembering his youth, danced "Russian". Russians at that time remained Russian not only in blood, but also in spirit.

“They dispersed and dispersed to their homes and airfields to the sounds of cannonade, which was made from all types of weapons on the occasion of the victory. Shooting went on in all districts of Berlin and its suburbs. They shot up, but fragments of mines, shells and bullets fell to the ground, and it was not entirely safe to walk on the morning of May 9 ... The signed act of unconditional surrender in the morning of the same day was delivered to the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, ”writes G. K. Zhukov.

Battles were also successfully completed in other directions of the Soviet-German front. The 1st Ukrainian Front fought until May 9, 1945, and some of its units for a little longer. After a meeting on the Elbe with American troops on April 25, 1945, units of the 5th Guards Army of General Zhadov were sent to repel the offensive of the Görlitz group of Germans, which hit the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front advancing on Dresden.

I. S. Konev met the commander of the American group of forces, General Omar Bradley, a week after the meeting of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front on the Elbe with American troops. I must say that on behalf of the US government, Konev, like Zhukov, was awarded the highest military order of the United States - the "Legion of Honor" degree of Commander-in-Chief. Zhukov was awarded the order by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Western Europe, US Army General David Eisenhower, and I. S. Konev - Omar Bradley. In turn, Eisenhower and the commanders of the British and French troops B. Motgomery and J. Detlar de Tassigny were awarded USSR awards: the first two were awarded the Order of Victory, and the third was the Order of Suvorov 1st Class. There were other mutual awards from the governments of the allied states and the government of the USSR.

Of particular interest is the exchange of awards between the two military leaders I. S. Konev and O. Bradley, carried out by them personally. Konev writes: “I knew that Bradley was going to give me a Jeep delivered from his headquarters right on the plane as a souvenir. For my part, I also prepared a personal gift for him: a drill horse that followed me everywhere from the summer of 1943, when I took command of the Steppe Front. It was a beautiful, well-trained Don stallion. I gave it with all the equipment to General Bradley. It seemed to me that the general was genuinely pleased with this gift. Having accepted the horse, he, in turn, presented me with a Jeep car with the inscription: “To the Commander of the First Ukrainian Army Group from the soldiers of the American troops of the 12th Army Group.”

The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front also reached the Elbe on May 7, 1945 on a wide front. We went to the Elbe and met with the 2nd British Army and the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front. The troops of each of the fronts reached the Elbe at the place and at the time determined by the Headquarters.

The exit of our troops to the Elbe and the meeting with the allies did not force the enemy to stop hostilities. On May 1, 1945, the German government, headed by Grand Admiral Dönitz, still had significant military forces at its disposal. About the German troops who did not lay down their arms on May 1, 1945, Konev wrote the following: “In the Soviet Baltic there was an army group“ Courland ”. On the coast of the Baltic Sea, the East Prussia group of troops still continued to fight. West of Berlin resisted, albeit thoroughly battered, the 12th Nazi army.

In Czechoslovakia, the Army Group Center was concentrated under the command of Field Marshal Scherner (up to fifty full-blooded divisions and six battle groups formed from former divisions). This impressive grouping resisted the troops of the 1st, 2nd and 4th Ukrainian fronts. In Western Czechoslovakia, the Allies were opposed by the German 7th Army (five divisions), just these days, also transferred to Scherner. Finally, in Austria and Yugoslavia, two more groups of fascist German armies fought against the troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts and the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia - "Austria" and "South", together numbering more than thirty divisions.

On May 1, in a number of cities of Czechoslovakia, including the capital of the state - the city of Prague, an uprising of the Czech people began against the German invaders. The uprising covered the entire territory of the Czech Republic and Moravia. On May 6, the rebels turned to the Soviet and allied troops for help. On the same day, May 6, our troops of the 1st, 4th and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts went on the offensive in order to complete the liberation of Czechoslovakia and its capital Prague. The Stavka assigned the main role in the Prague operation to the 1st Ukrainian Front.

On May 6, 10 tank corps rushed to Prague - 1600 tanks of I. S. Konev, who spoke along with other branches of the armed forces. Part of the troops advancing on Prague was given the task of capturing the German city of Dresden along the way.

It should be noted that the United States, without any military necessity, ignoring the presence of world-famous cultural values ​​in the city, completely bombed Dresden. Soviet troops under the command of I. S. Konev, on the contrary, found, and the Soviet government restored and preserved the treasures of the Dresden Gallery.

Tankers of the 1st Ukrainian Front on May 9, 1945 at three o'clock in the morning broke into the streets of Prague. “By this time, bloody clashes between the participants in the uprising and the SS men were still continuing in various parts of Prague. And while on some streets our tankers were met by the triumphant Prague population, on others, especially on the outskirts, tank crews were forced to immediately engage in battle and knock out the resisting fascists from Prague ...

In essence, the war has already ended, and these people died here, on the outskirts of Prague, when our whole country was already celebrating the Victory, they died in the last battles with enemies, fearlessly completing the work they had begun, ”writes I. S. Konev. On the graves of our soldiers who died in Prague and were buried at the Olshansky cemetery, the date of death "May 9, 1945" is indicated on the tombstones.

The mobile group of the 4th Ukrainian Front, with its main forces, by eighteen hours on May 9 also reached Prague. The Czechoslovak grouping of the Nazis was surrounded by troops of the 1st and 4th Ukrainian fronts. In this ring there were more than half a million soldiers and officers of the army group Scherner. Most of the encircled Germans surrendered. But separate battles with the Nazis, who did not want to lay down their arms, continued in different places for almost a week.

The Czechs, of course, were very lucky that the Soviet troops quickly defeated the Germans, for the Nazis are capable of the most bloody atrocities wherever power is on their side. As the “highest” stage in the development of a liberal civil society, fascism is once again conquering the West, and on the territory of the former Ukrainian SSR, through the efforts of the United States, a fascist state is being built exactly according to the same scenario according to which it was built in Germany and for the same purposes for which it was created in Germany in 1930s.

“The salute in honor of the liberation of Prague was the penultimate salute of the war. The last salute - the Victory salute, given from a thousand guns, sounded in Moscow a few hours after that, ”I.S. Konev continues the description of the battle in Prague.

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It was he who came up with the emblem of the SS, mystical rituals with human sacrifices and many more strange and terrible things. Heinrich Himmler seriously believed in black knights and evil wizards. But in the last days of April 1945, no one from the other world came to his aid.

1923 NSDAP(National Socialist German Workers' Party) attempts a coup d'état, which went down in history as Munich beer putsch. Heinrich Himmler walks with a banner in a Nazi column and comes under fire, but remains unharmed. In the same year, he joins the Nazi Party.

After some time in the famous pub "Hofbräukeller" At a meeting of the National Socialists, a young man of about 20 appeared, with a head on a chicken neck and a rat muzzle with a mustache. brought him Rudolf Hess. At some point, the youth, like a conjurer, pulled out of his sleeve a red cloth with a white circle, inside of which was a black swastika. Fuhrer stormtroopers Ernest Remus I really liked the banner.

Elena Syanova, historian:
But Himmler announced that this magnificent red flag was intended for the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler. By the way, the word "Führer" had not yet been pronounced.
And this one, triangular, with a skull and crossbones, is for Comrade Rem for his combat formations. You can imagine what Rem does in this situation. We have no evidence that there was any self-mutilation. Hess recalls that Rem took Himmler by the collar and threw him out the door.

However, Himmler calmly waited until the end of the meeting. As the Nazis left the pub, Adolf Hitler patted him on the shoulder. Hess, nodding at Himmler, said: "I swear on my loyalty, Adolf, you will have the Praetorian Guard." And the head of this guard very soon became a youngster with a rat's face, who came up with Hitler's personal life standard.

Heinrich Himmler wanted to SS core of the Aryan nation. He convinced Hitler that the SS should have more rights than other Germans. SS men did not do military service, could not be tried by an ordinary civil court, they were allowed duels, an SS man who dishonored himself with a crime even had the right to commit suicide, but this required permission from his superiors. The SS became the new German aristocracy. Young people of the bourgeois environment from noble German families aspired to get there.

Not everyone understood at once that Himmler was creating not just a security formation, but a secret order like medieval knightly orders. All the attributes of the SS spoke about belonging to the order. Each SS man carried a specially made dagger, on the blade of which was engraved the SS motto "My honor is my loyalty". Those who distinguished themselves were awarded the “Dead Head” ring - a massive piece of silver in the form of a wreath of oak leaves. The human skull symbolized devotion to death. And the emblem of the SS became two stylized letters formed by a double runic sign "Zig"- a symbol of power, energy, victory.

The study of runes was mandatory for all SS officers. "Zonnerad"- the solar wheel, the solar swastika, the symbol of the fire of the Aryan magicians. Rune "Tir"- a symbol of military prowess. A tombstone in the form of this rune was installed on the graves of the SS instead of the Christian cross. Rune "Hackenkreuz", or rectangular swastika - the main sign of the Nazis, symbolizing the rebirth and infinity of existence. Himmler wanted to replace all the crosses on Catholic cathedrals with the swastika.

"Grand Master" Himmler created an atmosphere of mystery in his order. There were several circles of initiates. The closest circle to the master consisted of 12 SS-Obengruppenführers. Number 5 was a certain Weistor. It was an alias. Actually this person's name was Carl Maria Wiligut. And he was Himmler's spiritual mentor. In the SS, Wiligut was the chief specialist in secret rites and deciphering runes.

Yuri Vorobyevsky, historian:
Wiligut visited such trance states of possession, one might say. And he said that in this specific state he is able to see the events of the centuries-old past. And all this shook Himmler's imagination.

In the west of Germany there is, as they say, a magic triangle. It is formed by rocks Externsteine where the pagan sanctuaries of fire were located, Teutoburg Forest, where, according to legend, at the beginning of a new era, the Germans defeated 3 Roman legions, closes this triangle in the form of a spear facing east, Wewelsburg castle. According to the magi, here the German soldiers will stop the coming invasion of the hordes from the East. Himmler decided to make this castle the order castle of the SS. The project was developed by Wiligut.

Elena Syanova:
Wewelsburg is an interesting place to visit. There you can see this hall, see this table, at which he dreamed of sitting, as King Arthur, collect your knights. You can see a huge hall where there should have been urns with the ashes of SS hierarchs.

The majestic north tower of the Wewelsburg was the center of the occult sanctuary. Here, Himmler ordered the construction of a crypt - a temple to the glory of the deceased leaders of the SS. Directly above the crypt was the hall of the leaders of the SS, where he gathered at a round table his close associates - 12 of the most noble and courageous knights of the SS.

Elena Syanova:
It was a place where no Hitler's foot had set foot, goering, Goebbels. It was his diocese, his fiefdom.

In Wewelsburg, between magical ceremonies and meditation sessions, the fate of entire nations was decided.

After the surrender, Himmler, using fake documents, tried to escape. But on the morning of May 23, he was detained by units of the British military police. He demanded a meeting with the field marshal Montgomery. And when he realized that no one was going to negotiate with him, he committed suicide by crushing an ampoule of potassium cyanide in his mouth.

He lay in bed for hours looking out the window. The monstrous cries of the wounded could break even an iron heart. A kind of numbness came upon him after this war. The war was lost. And there was nothing left. And he will never draw again. He never cried or begged, but when the surgeon, good old Professor Hans Spool, told him that his hand would have to be taken away, he yelled, cried, yelled, and begged to be left with his hand, his right hand.

Or he dreamed it, dreamed in a fever dream after the operation, when he had a fever and the present was mixed with dreams. He probably didn't say anything when the doctor said they were going to cut off his right arm. He must have simply listened to the news silently.

Needless to say, he was right-handed. However, he could, of course, draw with his left hand, but all the same, all his divine and incomparable artistic power was contained in his right hand. And even if he screamed and begged not to cut off his right hand only in his imagination and not in reality, a storm of pain immediately arose in his heart. It was as if small hurricanes lifted thousands of needles into the air of the brain, exceeding the pain of a rotten hand, and the thought that he would never draw as before tormented him.

After the operation, when his right hand was taken away from him, he somehow immediately calmed down. Indifferent, resigned, he lay on the bed and looked, looked and looked out the window. He will not draw from memory a picture of "no news on the eastern front." He will not make a series of portraits of German soldiers. He will not draw a crooked-nosed Jewish moneylender as if he were alive.

He will not call Wotan to life by depicting him not as vulgar realists - a bearded thug in the forest - but by drawing Wotan in a crowd of modern jacket people - pale, one-eyed, thin and tall.

What a strange irony! All his divine incomparable genius, all his most persistent training - and it all came down to his right hand - to a brainless piece of flesh.

This was the tool that the Lord gave him - perhaps even without admitting it to himself, he thought that it was not his silent Wotan to whom one could not even pray, but that, the Judeo-Christian miracle Yudo, the host of the covenant and the native parent of Christ, the god of the bush and clouds that, like the same cloud, swam from Sinai to poor, unfortunate Germany, covered it with its gray cover pierced by lightning and took possession of it for a thousand years!

he, with severe condescension, gave the boy Hitler a wonderful hand, and he also took it away from him because another god unobtrusively and silently took possession of it, god-man, god-pedestrian, god-wanderer and god-deceiver:
- show me her - he asked Dr. Spool
- show it to me.
swollen, blue from gangrene, she lay in an iron bath, no longer his hand. He was not an ambidextrous magician. He only had his right hand. Without it, he was like without eyes. The left one was incapable of anything. Being under thirty years old is hard to retrain. And in general, how could he retrain if he was an absolute right-hander?
So he lay and looked out the window at the uniformly varied sky, at the peeling cross of the frame, at the flying bird, at the rain and clearness. He did not turn his head and saw nothing but the sky. He heard voices all around. Heart-rendingly screamed from the phantom pains in the cut off legs, the war hero known throughout the ward, Hans Grendel. Someone, terribly, sobbing in a bass voice, was persuaded by the sisters. Someone recovered already joked and laughed. Someone talked about returning home. He, his own, a man without a hand, was not annoyed by these conversations, because these people simply did not exist. Someone above his ear said:
Don't worry, Adi. just one hand. Consider yourself lucky, Grendel's legs and hand were chopped off. Who is he now?
Adolf blinked his red eyes and looked at the sky "my right hand? what do they know about my right hand? What do they know about what was the right hand of Adolf Hitler? what was it? maybe Adolf Hitler himself was only an appendage of his right hand. Now they took her away, and they took me with her." However, he understood that the day would come when it would no longer be possible to lie in the hospital. He put off this day as best he could because he didn't want anything - he just wanted to lie down and look at the sky. However, the day has come:
- truce! peace! the survivors shouted. Someone was shouting in his ear again:
- Well, you and pig Hitler! I received the cross, got off with only one hand, and you are not happy! Oh you!
he was silent. he didn't want to get up. his body was numb from lying down and he tossed and turned in his bed, but in such a way that the sky was in his sight. sometimes he woke up on moonlit nights, but then he got a little scared. the moon was so clear and so round and shining just like thousands of years ago. He did not want to see her and closed his eyes and tried in vain to fall asleep because he was already tired of lying and sleeping. They were leaving. They returned to their homes, to their disgraced country, but they were not particularly ashamed.

They, like children, forgot about all the horrors and shame, grew fat eating parcels from home and offerings from citizens, laughed louder and louder and joked vulgarly and sang songs as if all the horrors of the war had not happened.

They didn't care, they were tired and wanted peace. All he wanted to do was lie down and look at the sky. The right hand of Adolf Hitler - what was it for the world? the right hand which two three four days ago turned into a blue-gray piece of meat.

However, when almost everyone had gone home - saying goodbye they laughed like schoolchildren leaving for the holidays - he got out of bed for the first time. Leaning on semi-unnecessary crutches, he walked around the ward and went to the window. The cold days are over. The sun was shining like a fat woman in the sky. and there was joy everywhere. It seemed only here, in the half-empty wards of the military hospital, autumn was stuck:
- Adolf Gitler?
- ah, it's you -
- Yes it's me.
Hitler, leaning on crutches that were no longer needed, went to the window:
- do you want to smoke?
- I quit smoking a long time ago when I lived in Vienna - he said because Vienna has already turned into a "long time ago":
- once I said to myself ... - however, he did not talk about how he quit smoking:
- OK. and I, if you will.
- Hitler, what will you do after the war? They cut off your right one. Excuse me, of course, but with you, the disabled, you need to be tougher so that you don’t let in nurses and don’t despair.
- I can’t draw with my left hand at all - Hitler sighed
- however, she displays some landscapes. - at these words he shuddered and visions surrounded him. How his right hand drew! How she painted! What could she draw! Oh, how he practiced how much he invested in his right. Landscapes! Flowers! Dogs! Previously, he could draw a woman in the same way as Leonardo painted her, and now - like a nasty apprentice. He imagined clumsily painted sisi, raised hands to the hair and a smile devoid of emotions - the fruit of his left hand, and he writhed as if in pain. The right hand is gone.
- you thought Adolf - continued the other
- that you're just an appendage of your right hand. You lived with it for so long that you forgot that you are not an artist Hitler but just Hitler. A hand is just a hand. Who are you?

Hitler straightened up and turned to look at him. His cold, not at all old face with protruding brow ridges and a pale high forehead shone in the darkness:
You always have to sacrifice something. - he said, looking at Adolf with a gaping hole in his right eye, which was not there:
- to get rid of the dictates of the flesh.

the artist did not answer, and he did not know what to answer him. However, something else woke up in Hitler's soul: he suddenly felt better without this monstrous burden - his brilliant right hand.
This hand pulled him to the ground, pulled him to the bottom of the ocean, she was death and a millstone tied to his neck.

She, this muddy dark right hand, exuded a kind of dark radiance that completely drowned out the light of the votanic flame that was now burning in Adolf Hitler's chest as huge as a yggdrasil fire.

"Encyclopedia of Death. Chronicles of Charon»

Part 2: Dictionary of Chosen Deaths

The ability to live well and die well is one and the same science.

Epicurus

HITLER Adolf

(pseudonym, real name Schicklgruber)

(1889-1945) leader of the National Socialist Party, head of the German state in 1933-1945

In April 1945, the Allied troops were finishing the defeat of Germany. The idea of ​​Hitler's life collapsed - the idea of ​​world domination of the Aryan nation. Albert Speer, head of war production in Nazi Germany, relates that a few days before his death, Hitler shouted: “If the war is lost, the German people should not exist. , food. This people turned out to be weak, and, therefore, the future belongs to the people of the East, who showed themselves to be stronger. "

Here is a brief chronicle of the last days of the Fuhrer.

Soviet troops have occupied three-quarters of Berlin, but Hitler still hopes for something ... He is in a two-story bunker at a depth of 8 meters under the courtyard of the imperial office, anxiously awaiting news. By evening, however, it becomes clear that the 9th and 12th armies are not able to liberate the capital. Together with Hitler in the bunker are his mistress Eva Braun, Goebbels with his family, the chief of the general staff Krebs, secretaries, adjutants, security guards. According to the testimony of an officer of the General Staff, at that time, "Hitler physically presented a terrible picture: he moved with difficulty and clumsily, throwing his upper body forward, dragging his legs ... He could hardly maintain balance. His left hand did not obey him, but his right trembled constantly ... Hitler's eyes were bloodshot ... "

In the evening, one of the best female pilots in Germany, Hanna Reitsch, fanatically devoted to Hitler, arrived in the bunker. According to the story of the pilot, the Fuhrer invited her to his place and said quietly: - Hannah, you belong to those who will die with me. Each of us has a vial of poison." He handed the vial to Hanna. "I don't want any of us to fall into Russian hands, and I don't want Russians to get our bodies. Eve's bodies and mine will be burned.

Hanna Reitsch testifies that during the conversation, Hitler presented a tragicomic picture: almost blindly rushing from wall to wall with paper in trembling hands; then he suddenly stopped, sat down at the table, moved flags around the map, denoting non-existent armies. "Completely disintegrated man," Reitsch stated.

Personal disintegration and insanity did not prevent Hitler from ordering the opening of the floodgates on the Spree River and flooding the metro station when he learned that Soviet troops had infiltrated the Berlin underground. The execution of the order led to the death of thousands of people who were in the subway: wounded German soldiers, women and children.

Goebbels and Bormann attend the wedding of Hitler and Eva Braun as witnesses. The process takes place in accordance with the law: a marriage contract is drawn up and a wedding ceremony is performed. Witnesses, as well as Krebs, Goebbels' wife, Hitler's adjutants General Burgdorf and Colonel Belov, secretaries and a cook are invited to the wedding celebration. After a small feast, Hitler retires to make a will.

The last day of the Fuhrer is coming. After lunch, on Hitler's orders, his personal chauffeur, SS Standartenführer Kempka, delivers canisters with 200 liters of gasoline to the garden of the Imperial Chancellery. In the conference room, Hitler and Eva Braun say goodbye to Bormann, Goebbels, Burgdorf, Krebs, Axman, who came here, to the Fuhrer's secretaries Junge and Weichelt. Then everyone, except for Hitler and his wife, goes out into the corridor. Further events are presented in two main versions.

According to the first version, based on the testimony of Hitler's personal valet Linge, the Fuhrer and Eva Braun shot themselves at 15.30. When Linge and Bormann entered the room, Hitler was allegedly sitting on a sofa in the corner, a revolver lying on the table in front of him, blood flowing from his right temple. The dead Eva Braun, who was in the other corner, dropped her revolver on the floor.

Another version (accepted by almost all historians) says: Hitler and Eva Braun were poisoned by potassium cyanide. Before his death, Hitler also poisoned two beloved sheep dogs.

By order of Bormann, the bodies of the dead were wrapped in blankets, taken out into the yard, doused with gasoline and burned in a shell crater. True, they burned badly, and, in the end, the half-burnt corpses were buried by the SS men in the ground.

The bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were discovered by the Red Army soldier Churakov on May 4, but for some reason they lay for 4 whole days without examination. They were delivered for inspection and identification to one of the Berlin morgues on May 8th. An external examination gave reason to believe that the charred corpses of a man and a woman were the remains of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. But, as you know, the Fuhrer and his mistress had several doubles, because the Soviet military authorities wanted to conduct a thorough investigation.

The question of whether the person delivered to the morgue was really Hitler still worries researchers. Here is what one of them says about the circumstances of the case:

“The corpse of a man was in a wooden box 163 cm long, 55 and 53 cm wide and 53 cm high, respectively. age and height could only be assumed: about 50-60 years old.Height - 165 cm.During his lifetime, Hitler repeatedly turned to his dentist, as evidenced by the large number of fillings and golden cows on the preserved parts of the jaws.They were seized and transferred to the SMERSH department -3 shock army.

From the protocol of the interrogation of the dentist K. Gaiserman, it was seen that the jaws belonged to the Fuhrer. On May 11, 1945, Gaiserman described in detail the anatomical data of Hitler's oral cavity, which coincided with the results of a study conducted on May 8. But still, in our opinion, it is impossible to completely exclude the notorious game on the part of those who could stand behind it.

There were no visible signs of severe fatal injuries or diseases on the body significantly altered by fire. But a crushed glass ampoule was found in the oral cavity. The smell of bitter almonds emanated from the corpse. The same ampoules were found during the autopsy of another 10 corpses close to Hitler. It was found that death was the result of cyanide poisoning. On the same day, an autopsy was performed on the corpse of a woman, "presumably", as stated in the acts, which belonged to Hitler's wife Eva Braun.

It was also difficult to determine the age: between 30 and 40 years. Height is about 150 cm. It was also possible to identify the corpse only by the golden bridge of the lower jaw. But, apparently, the causes of death were different: despite the fact that there was a broken glass ampoule in the mouth and the smell of bitter almonds also emanated from the corpse, traces of a shrapnel wound and 6 small metal fragments were found in the chest.

The study of the remains of Hitler and Braun was carried out by Soviet military forensic experts and pathologists; to date, they have all died, and therefore it is difficult (almost impossible) to know the fate of Hitler's remains. The writer Elena Rzhevskaya, who during the war was a translator of the 1st Belorussian Front, writes in her book "There was a war ..." that these remains were sent to Moscow. However, no one managed to find their traces in the former USSR.

Hitler's right hand... So they called the lame-legged "true Aryan", a brilliant manipulator of mass consciousness, This man left a bloody trail in history.

Childhood

Josef was born in the family of an accountant on October 29, 1897. As an infant, he contracted polio and remained crippled for the rest of his life. The disease also distorted the features of his face. At school, the children were reluctant to communicate with Josef. Due to the fact that one of his legs was shorter than the other, he could not run and jump with them like ordinary boys. The future right hand of Hitler won authority with his mind. He became the best student of the gymnasium. In addition, no one dared to tease him, he immediately complained to the teachers and school management.

Failed writer

Goebbels was a very organized person. He strove to be always the first, dreamed of fame and worked hard on it. He could do many things at the same time, it is significant that he attended lectures at eight universities at the same time and traveled to different parts of the city for them. It was important for him to have connections with high-ranking people, he could process tons of information. In 1921 he defended his dissertation, and a year later he became a doctor of philosophy.

He dreamed of becoming a famous writer. He created works in various genres, but publishing houses did not accept them. The only one who appreciated his creations was Maxim Gorky. He saw Bolshevik ideas in them. In the end, from the world of literature, he went into politics. Then Goebbels did not yet know that he was the future right hand of Hitler. The surname of the lame author-loser will thunder all over the world.

On the political arena

Joseph Goebbels entered politics in 1922. He joined the NSDAP. It was a huge breakthrough and a new life. His career began with the fact that, during a split in the party, he announced that he wanted to exclude Hitler from it. He explained this by saying that the petty bourgeois had no place in the Nazi Party. Later, he and Adolf, having got to know each other better, became close friends and associates.

The genius of rhetoric

He knew how to speak beautifully and convince people. His speeches were bright and his patience limitless. He did not leave the stands, even when communist workers threw beer mugs at him. He was able to convince any negative crowd to take his side. Hitler appreciated Goebbels and understood that he was an indispensable manipulator.

Impresario Genia

Goebbels practically created Hitler. He created for him the image of the infallible and supported him in every possible way. Not a single person from Adolf's entourage did as much as Hitler's right hand - Goebbels - for Nazi Germany. However, he preferred to remain in the shadows.

Love and the Goebbels family

In 1931 Joseph Goebbels married Magda Quandt. She was betrothed to him by Hitler. Magda was a widow and a real beauty. Their family has become exemplary. She bore him six children. All this was ostentatious, since Goebbels soon acquired the fame of a lame Casanova. Josef did not miss a single skirt. He especially liked young actresses. They quickly became disillusioned with the narcissistic sadist Goebbels, but it was not at all easy to get away from him.

Magda was not a saint either. It was rumored that she had many connections on the side, both with men and women. It is likely that not all of her children were from Josef.

War

Paradoxically, Goebbels was against a big war. He even insisted on making peace with Stalin and, as Hitler's right hand, tried to convince him that it was worth making concessions.

The figure of Joseph Goebbels came to the fore when the German troops began to suffer huge losses. In 1943, he gave a grandiose speech at the Berlin Sports Palace, in which he urged not to give up at any cost. Thanks to his oratory, a devoted ally and right hand of Adolf Hitler was able to raise the morale of the soldiers and the population. In 1944, Josef was able to prevent a conspiracy against the German chancellor, and this once again proved his deep attachment to him.

Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945. Josef got the opportunity to become Chancellor of Germany, but he did not see the point in this without his Fuhrer. Goebbels is Hitler's right hand, without Adolf he is nothing. The Russian soldiers were already advancing, and he took a desperate step - first he poured poison on the children, then Magda took it, and Josef himself shot himself in the head. The bodies of the entire family, by prior order of Goebbels, were burned.